Child resistant packaging is understood to be an important concept for preventing inadvertent access by children, for example, to potentially dangerous liquid or dry products. The packaging industry is in need of preventing children the access to detergent tablets which may be ingested by children. This means especially the apertures to the interior of the packages have to be protected from opening by children. Detergent compositions formed in non particulate solids such as bars or tablets briquettes are known in the art. In the following, the term "tablets" will refer to any form of non particulate solids. The detergent tablets available on the market are generally sold packed in containers in a loose way or individually wrapped in bags.
Due to the difficulty in opening child resistant packages, many persons, especially elderly adults who may also have impaired strength and dexterity, tend to prefer a non-child resistant package. Alternatively, when dangerous products are purchased in child resistant packages by adults, the child resistant package is often left unclosed in order to defeat the child resistant feature. As a result, the danger of child poisonings may increase in the home.
The aforementioned problems are generally recognized in the packaging industry. The dispensing of the tablets is foreseen through a dispensing opening comprising a hinged spout. Child resistant features on the hinged spout are also foreseen to prevent the opening of the hinged spout by children. Such child resistant spouts are obtained by a double or coordinated action on the spout to open the spout itself. In particular, a hook interacting with a slot is de scribed in FIGS. 8a to 8d. The opening of the spout is achieved by disengaging the hook from the slot and pulling the spout open. This child resistant spout is simple to use for adults and a good deterrent to opening for children.
Nevertheless, it has been found that this hook/slot engagement may become weaker with use. This means that it may become easier to disengage the hook from the slot. Consequently, the resistance to opening this spout by children is diminished with frequent opening of the spout.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to maintain an effective engagement between the hook and the slot of the hinged spout avoiding substantial weakening of the engagement.